A Lesson in Betrayal, Part Seven
Team Titan Think Tank. Issue 14- "A Lesson in Betrayal" (Part 7.) Front cover- Mr Psychic faces the reader, sans top hat, as he lifts up his Psycho-Kinetic cane over his head, as it emits a purple glow from its top. This action is reflected in a multitude of mirrors behind him. The issue opens with Reb's predicament; he is being held aloft by an invisible Games Master, legs kicking as he struggles, with Mister Tops stood behind him. In the background behind Tops is the other Reb and Rob as they move backward. Rob attempt to pry Reb from the clutches of Games Master, but fails. The comic then shows down the corridor, where Tonic stands, as she raises her arm-mounted dart launcher and fires. The dart smacks Reb right in the neck. "OWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" He over reacts "Well, it seems that works better than my horns. And sim or not, I am still not happy about head butting a child... so..." Mister Tops turns on Rob. "... time to remove the biggest threat about young Reb here... until he starts throwing whales around, of course." He smashes his horns into Rob's chest, but the robot does not buckle. "YOUR COURSE OF ACTION IS INADVISABLE." "Quite." "T...that d...dart s....should s....stop the w...whales, by my calculation." The comic cuts to show the reader the OTHER invisible Games Master, flat against a mirror behind the one holding Reb, as he, seen only by the reader, highly transparent, looks left and right, weighing up the situation. The Games Master sneaks behind his twin, knowing that attacking is futile. With a look of resolve he must do something to make the double drop Reb. In a swift motion of blue, an energy attack lashes outwards, in the form of a hooked cane straight at the double's back. A thought bubble shows "Let THIS get your attention!" He hooks the cane around the twin - tripping him - he falls backwards releasing Reb from his grasp. A panel shows invisible GM taunting the other GM who has fallen flat on his backside. Reb falls down onto his feet, his once teary eyes now serious, looking to Dr Toni. "Curious i wonder DOCTOR, why would a scientist of your cailbur jump to conculsions; you weren't here to begin with, yet you do not seek answers! You let others tell you what the fakes are. you're not a scientist of your cailbur, you're a projection of this room!" He points, and then he turns to Mr Tops. "And i don't know you as well, but the real Mr Tops wouldn't hit a kid so quickly, I feel, and if i'm wrong, well, then I don't feel too bad about this!" Rob's chest opens and the cannons seperate into two groups "Don't listen to him, he's a dupe... why else would he distract us whilst his fake of me sneaks up on me!" yells the GM on the floor. "R...Reb w...what are you d...doing!? This p...program is a...all wrong..." "If you were the real Dr Toni, I wouldn't have to hold your hand!" He shrugs. "TARGET LOCKED- FIRE!" Meanwhile, the reader sees the one GM get to his feet and grab the other by the shoulders. GM is shoved into a mirror as the cannons fire; the mirror shatters. The closest target for Rob, Mister Tops, is struck first as the cannons blas; Tops grits his teeth, and roars out in pain. Tonic is blasted off of her feet. The two GM's are flung out through the mirror as Reb sees a desert wasteland below them, as the two Games Masters fall about thirty feet, one of them becoming visible mid-flight. Reb sees them hit the sand, before sand explodes around them with the impact and then Tonic, at the other end of the corridor hits another mirror, again flung through it. "AAAAAAAAAAGGGggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............................" Reb watches as Tonic is flung into the fires of what looks like Hell as she disappears, dropping down as well. "Ha...maybe a tad excessive..." As we cut to Sonne and Cain, after Cain decided which Sonne to fight, and took down the false one, at least, as far as the reader knows. "So, I gotta know. How did you know it was me?" "Please." he says, 'dusting off' the electricity as he resumes his normal form, "I was put on the team *why*, exactly?" "Come on, give over. You have to tell me, so that I can do it next time around. This is a training exercise, after all." "Well, there is that." he concedes with a wide shrug, sauntering in Gunn's direction. "It was quite daring to be the *first* to deliver me a hard-headed insult, but, well... considering my background... you're certainly your father's son, let's say." "Thanks. I think." Gunn frowns, but smiles again. "You're not half bad. Sometimes. Alone, maybe." "It's fine, Sonne. Nobody need know you said anything." "The walls have sensory inputs..." Gunn mutters, swaggering over to the fork. "So, where to? I'm a genius, sure. But it's your sim, so I'd be lapse to not yeild to greater ecetera ecetera." "In a place as confusing as this? Simple." Cain's tail becomes a hefty club once more as he says "Down." Gunn blinks. "You'll see." Cain promises, looking at Gunn and then giving the mirrors leading into the forks very obvious glances The comic cuts to Tonic, the one that was last scene on the ceiling, the comic zooms in, to show that her fingertips and soles of her feet are actually slightly phased through the 'glass' ceiling. On the floor below her is Mr Psychic's smoking top hat. "...Oh no...I t...think I g...got it w...wrong..." The ceiling suddenly seems to push her fingers and feet out of it, and she drops back first towards the floor, which seems to briefly turn into something not entirely distant from lime jelly, and she scrambles out in a tangle of royal purple ball gown, the floor too reverting to what it was before, grabs th smoking hat, and runs after Mr Psychic...getting caught up in the folds of fabric every few steps, clearly unused to wearing a dress. The comic cuts to the two Yu's and a Mister Tops; a very injured Yu stands between the two of them. The uniinjured Yu lets his training take over, trying to ignore the fact that he is currently fighting against himself, and presses the attack from last issue, whirling his staff about his body and spinning forward to build momentum before lashing out at the other Yu. In one panel, the comic focusses on the staff tip about to strike one of the Yu's chest's. In another, the comic focusses on a hand going for a teleporter, as Yu strikes Mister Tops firmly in the chest, as the one in between them disappears. "Tch..." Caught unexpected, Tops falls backwards and smashes through a mirror, completely shattering both mirrors on either side of it too, as the corridor fills with a wintery wind, as Tops falls down towards a snow covered forwest. "Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...." As Tops falls down, he sees Yu teleport above him, by inches. Yu latches onto Mr. Tops and whirls, throwing him to one side in an effort to direct his fall into some tree branches. "Arggggggggh!" Tops spins round trying to grab the snowy tree branches, but failing, as he spins round. He lands on the ground with an "oof." And then a large amount of snow falls on him. "Gonna get... Yu." He says, from under the snow. Several tree branches fall on him, knocking the snow off. As Yu lands on him. We cut to the hat-less Mr Psychic as he strides his way down a corridor. He turns as he hears running and sees Tonic. "May I help you, my lady?" "I...I...I'm so...ss...sorry...I di...um..." she stops, staring at the floor. "...Y....you're NOT a fake, are you? I'm p...pretty sure i ju...just...y...your hat..." "Oh, not to worry. It is but a machine that can be fixed with a little know-how." "...I f...figured i...it out w...when you w...walked away. A r...real f...fake...w...wouldn't l...leave s...someone w...who had c...called it out on that t...to tell others a...after h...having been m...made distinguishable f...from the r...real one..." They both come out of a fork in the path, with a turning directly on their left; on their right is the dead end where Psychic began, and ahead is another turning which seems to take a diaognal left. "Quite so. If there is indeed a fiendish facsimile wandering around it would do well to stop him before he causes any harm among our team." He adjusts his monocle while pressing down on a button. "Speaking of which, it would appear that there are readings to the leftward path." "T...Then w...we go that way." She is still awkwardly clutching Mr Psychic's hat in both hands We cut, as Cain strikes the floor with his ankylosaurus tail, ss it shatters and the two fall down a cylindrical stone tunnel into a pit of darkness. The new thrusters that Sonne has added to his suit, independant of the suit's anti-grav field flight abilities, kick into life, as Sonne slows his descent. "So, uh. Explination'd be great." Sonne says, slowly falling. Cain retorts by sprouting pteradactyl wings, beating them heavily and then leisurely to slow his down descent. "Breaking the mirrors leads us to the next phase of the simulation. Hopefully the others have figured it out by now. And... well, not *too* far away." "See? I like it when I get straight answers. What can we expect down there?" "The next area is likely to cause as much confusion as the mirror hall. We could end up on a molten hellscape. Or a snowy cliff face. If we were unlucky, we'd be falling toward the ocean right now. Though if this darkness keeps up, we... well, *I*, may have the misfortune of a low atmosphere simulation." "Oh dear. I can probably float you back up top." Gunn's helmet deploys around his head, the energy field protecting his features. "Considering the number of dupes we've currently encountered, I'm *far* from putting my safety before the others'..." He says, looking down into the darkness, then looking back to Gunn with a mild grin and an eye-glint CUT "Owwwwwwwwwww!" Tops screams, the one still in a corridor. He looks back to a Reb "You want to help me against your evil duplicate?" "I can't! He Sherlock Holmesd me!" "Whatever THAT means!" Tops snarls. He tries to grab onto the other Reb, but he is squirming out of his grip, as Tops is clearly in a lot of pain. From around the corner, edging carefully around the hole to hell, comes Mr Psychic, wearing a top hat. "My Psychic, stay back! Duplicate conflict you need to assess the sitation, if your real that is!" Mr Psychic presses some buttons under the rim of his top hat. "Duplicates you say? Most heinous trickery." His hat spins round and glows, as it is wont to do. "However, I must inquire as to why I am being requested to stay back. Surely as a hero it would be in my best interests to assess this myself... perhaps you yourself may be one of these copies." "Perhaps, or i merely asked you to assess before you acted as any one of us..." Reb points to himself and the other Reb. "...Would seek to cloud your judgement in their favour." "Quite so, my boy. It would not do to end up being backstabbed at a crucial junction." The comic cuts to Games Master and Games Master, one still invisible, one visible, both lying on the sand, surrounded by endless sand dunes. Above them, they both see a crack in the sky, to the hall of mirrors, where they fell from. The comics from GM's normal view, to a black and white view, where there are white circles emitting from the GM's where they have hit the ground, and further circles are emitting from the crack in the sky. GM looks around the desert and sees no radar blips from it, so he looks in the sky again; he sees blips from both Rebs, Robs, Tops and the newly arrived Mr Psychic. He sweeps his gaze across the sky and sees two more blips, despite seeing only cloud. "So, I've fallen into level two." GM turns, still lying on his back, and looks at his duplicate. Reb, up above, looks down at the fallen two, as the sand clears; he looks slightly worried. The visible Games master sits up. "... What did y... oh." He is looking at the other GM as he says this. And then slumps backwards, ying unmoving on the sand, hands splayed out. GM takes a moment to stare at the double - at the vision of himself. T fallen Games Master flashes out of existance. "Time to turn up the difficulty." End of issue.